God Likes to Catch Us Off-guard

In today’s Gospel, God reveals Himself through the suddenly open mouth of Zechariah in front of all the people present for his son’s circumcision, his son of course being John the Baptist. Now, you would think the reaction to God revealing Himself to all the folks would be one of praise and rejoicing. No, their reaction is-fear! This is actually common throughout the Gospels when God makes an appearance in one form or another. When the boy in the tombs is possessed by a demon and Jesus heals him, you would think the townspeople would hoist Jesus on their shoulders and parade Him through the town; no, in fear, they beg Him to leave. When God shows Himself to the shepherds in the field through the angels to announce the birth of Christ, the response is not rejoicing; in fact, in some Bible versions, the Gospel of Luke tells us “they were sore afraid.” Even Mary, when visited by God through an angel, does not rejoice, but becomes afraid. The Gospel of Luke tells us “Mary was deeply troubled.”

I believe the reason for the fear in response to God’s sudden presence is that in each instance, including in today’s Gospel, the people are caught off-guard; it seems to be one of God’s favorite ways to work. I know I hate being caught off-guard, even if it's something good; do you? I’ve had a couple of surprise birthday parties thrown for me and I didn’t like it one bit. I believe God likes to work this way because of the C word-CONTROL. As humans, control is important to us; we like to make sure things are managed, we want some predictability in our lives. But I think God likes to catch us off-guard because suddenly our walls are broken down, our shields are lowered to use a Star Wars reference. When our defenses are down, we can cede control to the Lord, then He can really work within us.

When God catches us off-guard, we can have two responses: we can try to ignore it or drive it out until it goes away, like the townspeople. Or, we can embrace it in faith. The shepherds could have cowered among their flocks, but instead said to each other, “Let’s go see this thing in Bethlehem.” Mary of course could have run out of the house and figured she got into some bad mushrooms, but instead, simply said “Let it be done to me as you say.”

It can be very difficult to cede all our control to the Lord because we don’t know where it will take us. I know from my own life experience that when I finally did leave it all with the Lord, my life journey has been amazing. I still remember the moment the wife came to me in the waiting room when she went for her first ultrasound (in that place and time the father was still not allowed into the exam room with the wife): with tears in her eyes, she said, “There’s three of them!” My brilliant response: “Three what?” I thought perhaps there was a deformity. “Three BABIES, you idiot!” As with Mary, I was panic-stricken. Of course, as with Mary, I really didn’t have a choice. God seldom asks us what we think about the idea; He respects us too much for that. After 24 hours, something stirred inside me and I threw myself totally into the preparations for a long, crazy, yet beloved journey with triplets. I am thankful for that moment literally every day.

I’m sure you remember the prayer of Ignatius: “Take Lord, receive, all my liberty- my memory, understanding, my entire will. You have given me all that I am and all that I possess. I return it to you now and surrender it to the guidance of your will. Give me only your love and your grace, for with that I am rich enough and ask nothing more.”

It takes tremendous courage to say that prayer and actually mean it with every fiber of your being, right down to your very bones. What about you: can you do it? God is waiting.

And may God bless us, every one. 

Jim Macika is a member of the C21 Center's Pray It Forward community. He offered the above reflection on Wednesday, June 24, 2026. It is shared with his permission. 

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